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Spotlight On: Borba Skin Care Products

Founder Scott-Vincent Borba is in pursuit of the total approach to skin care.

By Joanna Cosgrove
Online Editor

Driven by the philosophy of building beauty from within, Scott-Vincent Borba, founder and CEO of Borba Skin Care Products, has earned a solid reputation as a prescient thinker and beauty business visionary. For him, health and beauty are one in the same. He has changed the way people think about skin care, having developed first-of-their-kind ingestible and topical beauty products that treat the skin from both inside and out. He’s also bridged into the lifestyle category with a linen, face and body reviving mist Atomizer, as well as an eco-friendly Laundry Wash that imbues clothes with skin care benefits.

Scott Vincent Borba

Having worked on products for companies such as Hard Candy Cosmetics, Johnson & Johnson, P&G/Wella-Sebastian, Shiseido/Joico and Murad, Mr. Borba was well versed on role of good skin care; however, he was plagued by acne that left his face, back and chest pock marked and scarred.

“I worked to create products that people love, but despite all of their philosophies, their actives and their chemists, I could not find a solution that worked for me,” he recalled. “When you’re acneic…you can’t use the creams and lotions and potions you want because your skin will counterbalance with sebum challenges. I didn’t want to have to take harsh medications; I wanted to come up with a holistic way to stave the challenges internally as well as to be able to topically use products.”

During his tenure at Murad, Mr. Borba’s father was diagnosed with cancer and he left the company to care for him. It was around that time he immersed himself in the idea of starting his own company.

“I had already been researching my own skin concerns but also began researching my dad’s condition with endocrinologists,” he said. “I started to identify the top entrepreneurial people in the water industry, bioavailability specialists and nutraceutical specialists in the Eastern world. Each one of them knew exactly what I was trying to do, although no one had ever really focused on clinically-proven beauty. They knew I mortgaged everything I had to start this business and I was very blessed because they all rallied with me.”

Drawing Inspiration from the Everyday

When it comes to his new product inspirations, Mr. Borba’s approach is both quantitative and qualitative. For instance, after habitually misting his bed linens with a fabric refresher, he wondered what the product was actually doing for his skin. Not long after he formulated his own Borba Atomizer Linen, Face and Body Reviving Mist ($21) which when misted over skin and linens, deposits antioxidants from mangosteen fruit to help “moisturize, revitalize and fight signs of aging on skin.” The product also contains pomegranate, grape seed and cucumber extracts plus vitamin E.

“My inspirations come from tapping into common behaviors, not creating new product usage occasions,” he said. “I do not want to change a consumer’s habits. I want to create beauty solutions that fit into the habits consumers already have to maximize the benefit and make their lives easier.

“People are busy,” he continued, “They want simplified products that really work, that are as natural as possible. My goal is to simplify my consumer’s life with regimens that have minimal steps.”

Fabric Fusion 2-in-1 Eco-Laundry Wash

The latest Borba product, Fabric Fusion 2-in-1 Eco-Laundry Wash (36 fl. oz., $25), takes skin care innovation and simplicity to new levels. Set to launch in this month, the product is a proprietary formulation that includes hydrolyzed elastin fiber that fuses with washables “so that they feel smoother and more refined,” wild pansy, seamoss, glycerin and antioxidant-rich açaí. The product is billed to be an eco-friendly, 99% natural, low foam formula that’s free of petrochemicals, tested and recommended by dermatologists.

But the skin benefits of the product are just part of Mr. Borba’s creation inspiration.

“Everyone can relate to the frustrating situation when you buy a detergent that will wash 24 loads, along with a fabric softener good for 50 loads. Then you’re stuck in a cycle of buying products that don’t synergize. You constantly have to buy one or the other,” he said. “This product will wash and soften 24 loads—there’s no running to put it into the rinse cycle, it fuses onto the clothes during the dry cycle, there are no sheets needed in the dryer and it gives a pleasant scent to the linens that makes the skin look and feel better, as well as being better for the environment. It hits on all of the aspects the consumer wants.”

Mr. Borba is also focused on creating beauty products that strike a balance between effectiveness and holistic.

“They aren’t 100% green but they’re as close as they can get,” he said. “I try to get them to the point where they’re as active as a non-synthetic versus synthetic. As a celebrity aesthetician, I test all of my products and a majority of them are clinically proven. On top of that, they’re radically unique.

Although his current beauty and wellness product umbrella is wide and far-reaching, Mr. Borba is still hoping to leave his imprint on two additional areas: print and television outlets, to educate consumers about the benefits of holistic wellness and beauty; and clothing. “There’s fabric technology in my formulations and I’m not going to stop until I reinvent clothing,” he exclaimed. “I have other categories that skin care doesn’t live in yet that I’m working on concepts for. They revolve around things people do everyday but don’t realize skin care can exist in those formats.”

He’s already allied himself with Japanese firms who’ve had success with impregnating fabrics with vitamin C, green tea and grapeseed, but the fruit of that partnership is still in the very early stages.

“It’s one thing to make a fabric with all of these things in it, but it’s another to make a fabric that actually works to the point where people will want to buy it,” he said, noting that he’s already collaborated on two haute couture handbag lines.

For now though, Mr. Borba is prepping for his next QVC appearances, slated for March and April. His cosmeceutical products have been regularly featured on the shopping network over the last two years, but his next appearances will showcase his beauty nutraceuticals—marking the first time the network has supported that type of concept.

“This is huge,” he exclaimed. “QVC really scrutinizes every company and claim before it gets behind the products it sells and we’re incredibly excited to be a part of it.”